DIY experimental instruments with yuri landmann

"Over the last ten years Yuri Landman has established himself as a leading instrument maker, developing experimental custom instruments for the likes of Sonic Youth, HEALTH, Liam Finn, Liars, Blood Red Shoes, and Jad Fair of Half Japanese, as well as making his own music." Don't Panic

From october 27th to 29th, Yuri Landman presents Do-It-Yourself workshops whereby participants will leave with a finished electric instrument as well as a strong understanding of its structure and workings. The difficult soldering part will be taken care of by Yuri. Participants require no special skills and the difficulty of the process has been compared to building a piece of IKEA furniture!

In advance of the workshop Yuri will prepare the component parts of the instrument for the participant to use in construction. These include: 4 pieces of ready shaped wood in the required sizes and predrilled with holes, easy to employ machine heads for the strings, one pickup (good quality, equal to Fender), an on/off switch, a jack output, a few screws, bolts and nuts and some metal for the bridges, as well as two sets of strings.

Duration of the workshop is approximately four hours.

Triochord
Sun Oct 27th afternoon 12.00 - 16.00 (15 spots) (30€)
The Triochord is an enhanced version of the monochord/Didley Bow. All strings are tuned  in unisono giving an excellent natural chorus effect. This instrument workshop is very cheap  compared  to  the  other  workshops  and  therefore  highly  suitable  to  organise  at music education centres and conservatories. The instrument features a common Western logarithmic scale as well as a scale of harmonics.

Home Swinger
Sun Oct 27th evening 18.00 - 22.00 (15 spots) (125€)
The Home Swinger is a simplified version of the Moodswinger designed to be easy to assemble and play. It does not feature
the slick finished design of the Moodswinger, but is exactly the same sounding instrument.  
In advance of the workshop Yuri will prepare the component parts of the instrument for the participant to use in construction.  These  include:  4  pieces  of  ready  shaped  wood  in  the required sizes and predrilled with holes, easy to employ machine heads for the strings, one pickup (good quality, equal to Fender), an on/off switch, a jack output, a few screws, bolts and nuts and some metal for the bridges, as well as two sets of strings.

Destroy Your Own Guitar / White Eagle Guitar
Mon Oct 28th evening 18.00 - 22.00 (5 spots only!) (125€ or 175€, depending if you bring your own guitar)
The White Eagle is a tailed bridge guitar, which means there’s an additional amplified string field in the tail behind the bridge of the guitar.
The instrument has two pickups. It can be used as a regular electric guitar when played mono on the normal bridge pickup. Behind the bridge there is an additional pickup.
It’s a stereo instrument and creates a beautiful audio spectrum at recording sessions when two amps are being used. A switch can change the stereo signal in a mono set up.
More practical for live situations, amplifying both sections.
The string length of the tail section has a 1:4 ratio to the open string on the guitar section, causing bright overtones two octaves higher than the open string. On harmonic fret positions (5th, 7th, 12th, 19th, etc.) the tail area gives a beautiful humming harmonic overtone. On lesser consonant positions such as the 6th fret for instance, the resonance is more muted. With alternate tunings you can arrange desired harmonic resonances on specific notes.

Caterpillar Drum Guitar
Tue Oct 29th evening 18.00 - 22.00 (5 spots only!) (125€)
The Caterpillar is an instrument which can be used as a noise drum guitar in the tradition of Glenn Branca’s ‘Mallet Guitars’ as well as a convenient bowed instrument or a more traditional slide guitar commonly used in country music.
With two drum sticks you can easily develop a percussive sliding technique with one stick functioning as a slide to select a pitch and with the other stick you hit the sliding stick. The instrument also functions well with drum techniques such as double strokes and bouncing.
The instrument features two pickups. It can be used as a stereo instrument and creates a beautiful audio spectrum at recording sessions when two amps are being used. A switch can change the stereo signal in a mono set up which is easier for live situations.
Three musical scales are drawn on the instrument that all together clarify the played tones and the harmonic positions. The color dotted series are equal to the system used on the Home Swinger. Two small movable bridges allow the player to select four fundamental tones.
 

Wed Oct 30th 18.00 - 22.00 rehearsal with the participants
Thu Oct 31st 21.00 - 22.00 Ensemble performance

"Over the last ten years Yuri Landman has established himself as a leading instrument maker, developing experimental custom instruments for the likes of Sonic Youth, HEALTH, Liam Finn, Liars, Blood Red Shoes, and Jad Fair of Half Japanese, as well as making his own music." Don't Panic

Sun Oct 27th 12.00 - 16.00 Triochord (15 spots) (30€)
Sun Oct 27th 18.00 - 22.00 Home Swinger (15 spots) (125€)
Mon Oct 28th 18.00 - 22.00 Destroy Your Own Guitar / White Eagle Guitar (5 spots) (175€ or 125€ if you bring your own guitar)
Tue Oct 29th 18.00 - 22.00 Caterpillar Drum Guitar (5 spots) (125€)

For information, contact Yuri directly: strateraser@gmail.com
To register, send an email to trockenschwimmen@ausland-berlin.de